ANTHEM – 9TH JULY, 2011

By Gabriel Kuchdit Kachuol, Nairobi, Kenya

I still vividly recall 9th July, 2011,

Our national independence day

when we all stood at the foot of our flag,

(a symbol of our resolve and fortitude

to pay with our blood and tears

the exorbitant price of our human dignity and selfhood)

we sung songs of praise and glory to God

who in times of utmost moments of despair

had been our sapping source of hope:

‘We are grateful to thee O God

for granting us our motherland

whom we rise raising flag

with golden guiding star

and sing songs of freedom

with joyful salutation to our patriots

whose blood cements the foundation

of our nation which we all vow to protect.

We beseech Thee, O God, to bless

and uphold us forever united in peace,

justice, liberty and prosperity.’

Many and diverse as our voices were

but we as one voice sung ‘free at last’ 

thinking we were bidding a farewell

to a bitter and cruel struggle

little did we know the devil lurked,

plotting, possessing our heads and hearts,

turning the joyful tune of our anthem

into a new commandment: ‘hate thy brother as thyself;

obverting the reign of justice, peace and prosperity

with that of corruption, tribalism and poverty.

We went to bed sick with tribo-politico-powerosis,

our spirit of patriotism turned into’ ‘paytoriotism’

we woke up the third morning with evil stupor

that in our minds echoes the dark past

as if destiny appointed that day

to prove to each other our differences;

as if destiny had for us in waiting 

a rude leap into moral numbness

that lulled us (citizenry) to naivety

and blind faith in tribal demagogues

who do not only feed us with empty rhetorics

but in whose hands we become willing rapists,

moral rapists of our own motherland!

Pardon our waywardness o motherland!

The poet, GABRIEL KUCDIT KACHUOL, is a South Sudanese student in Nairobi, Kenya. Can be reached by kucdidgab@gmail.com

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